Personal inflight television sets for air travellers

Press, 7 April 1987, Page 26

Personal inflight television sets for air travellers

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor, who attended the Ansett aviation and travel

writers’ seminar in Adelaide last week.

Passengers on international flights might soon be saved from long hours of boredom. The Boeing Company has developed new miniaturised television sets that will be built into seat-backs of new aircraft.

The tiny sets will have 120 mm colour screens — a fraction bigger than the kiwi photograph on the right of this page.

They will offer passengers a choice of three or four programmes and will also be used for demonstrating safety and emergency procedures.

Details of the sets were revealed at the Ansett aviation and travel writers’ seminar by Mr Fred Mitchell, chief payloads design engineer for the boeing Company’s 7J7 project in Seattle.

The 7J7 is a 'new generation’ airliner being built by Boeing. It has yet to be given a middle

number, but is likely to become the 8777 to continue the sequence of Boeing’s existing family of 87275, 87375, 87475, 87575, and 87675. It will incorporate the latest “fly by wire” technology on the flight deck and will be powered by counter-rotating unducted fan engines — a combination of propellers and jet. Mr Mitchell’s job has been to approach airlines for their views on internal design improvements. For instance, the 7J7 will allow cabin attendants to communicate directly by radio with their company’s ground stations without having to bother pilots to transmit the messages via the flight deck.

This will save them from being interrupted with routine requests for wheelchairs, special meals, and other matters relating to passengers.

Mr Mitchell said Boeing had paid special attention to seat design, aisle width, and stowage bins on the new airliner. It even called on volunteers to test different types of toilet closets.

“Little old ladies often have trouble with aircraft lavs,” he said. “We have come up with an improved design, particularly as far as the doors are concerned.”

Non-smokers, however, will still have to suffer fall-out from passengers in the smoking zones. “Aircraft air-conditioning systems just cannot cope with smoke,” he said. “A total ban on inflight smoking could be enforced in the United States soon, but it is a long way off in other countries. “One airline in Europe tried it, but was forced to give up after 30 days because it lost too much business,” said Mr Mitchell.